When a New Mexico child goes missing or becomes the victim of a predator, an entire task force now goes out for justice.

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“We really have an epidemic in our society of people preying on underage children,” said Davilu Cummings of Homeland Security.

Albuquerque Police and Homeland Security have teamed up to create a new task force called “SPEED,” -- Sexual Predator and Exploitation Enforcement Detail.

“Basically what we’ve done is we’ve taken our best and our brightest and we’ve put them together,” Cummings said.

The task force is going after predators online, in person and sex traffickers. With more resources, the joint effort means more officers policing the predators and harsher charges for those they catch.

“We really need this effort to protect them, to make sure they are not victimized and to make sure no future individuals are victimized by this type of activity,” said APD Commander Chris Bakas.

The program is new, but children are already a little safer -- the task force has arrested 20 people.

The Albuquerque Family Advocacy Center will provide services on the back end for the unit, anything from forensic examinations to counseling and legal aid.